"Many Frenchmen also sought relief in this thought in 1940 and the years which followed. "Let's try to take the point of view of history," they said upon learning that the Germans had entered Paris. And during the whole occupation certain intellectuals sought to keep "aloof from the fray" and to consider impartially contingent facts which did not concern them. Pp. 75-6."
"De Beauvoir calls this the aesthetic attitude, and says it is merely flight from reality. In the real world, we are all in this together. What happens to others is our concern. Our freedom exists only in the presence and freedom of others. The aesthetic attitude is an effort to hide from the reality of our own freedom."
"She says that the responsibility of the intellectual, the artist, and the critic is to create awareness of existential freedom as a common goal for all humanity, and to encourage everyone to accept the demands of that freedom in the face of tyranny."
An aesthetic attitude that detaches from collective reality serves as flight from responsibility during crises. Individual freedom is interdependent with the presence and freedom of others, so indifference undermines genuine liberty. Intellectuals, artists, and critics hold responsibility to foster awareness of existential freedom as a shared aim and to urge acceptance of its demands against tyranny. Resistance to oppression is an ethical imperative, which can justify violence when necessary. Practical acts of witnessing and intervention, such as documenting assaults, exemplify exercising freedom and prompting others to act. Courage and solidarity are necessary to confront both fascist occupation and capitalist exploitation.
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